Manufacturing collaboration in the deportation field: intermediation and the institutionalisation of the International Organisation for Migration's 'voluntary return' programmes in Morocco

Abstract

In Morocco, the implementation of the 'Assisted Voluntary Return and Reintegration' programmes (AVRR) run by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) counts on the widespread collaboration of governmental and humanitarian migration practitioners and of migrants themselves. How come that actors occupying such heterogeneous positions in the migration field ultimately agree on their daily participation to IOM's AVRR programmes? What power rationales structure this collaborative network on return? The article draws on documentary sources and fieldwork conducted between 2016 and 2018 in Morocco. It adopts a socio-historical perspective that denaturalises the institutionalisation of AVRR programmes and combines the relevant empirical data with a theoretical discussion on collaboration in the deportation field. It argues that the institutionalisation of AVRR programmes in Morocco results from power rationales of intermediation and collaboration amongst different actors - both at an institutional level and on the ground. This gives rise to non-homogenous and sometimes seemingly contradictory forms of appropriation of voluntary return by third actors within the migration field.